2019 World Food Safety Day

 

 

2019 World Food Safety Day
Food safety, everyone’s business

Carla Mucavi, Director, FAO Liaison Office with the United Nations in New York

 

Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me welcome all of you for joining us here today for this inaugural World Food Safety Day, under the theme “Food safety, everyone’s business,” organized by the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the United Nations, FAO and WHO.

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

Food safety is critical to ensure food security and nutrition and good health and is an enabler of many other goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. One central message I hope we can take from today is that there is no food security without food safety.

I would like to highlight also the strong link between food safety and healthy diets.

Food safety cannot be only about preventing people from getting food poisoning or sick from food-borne illnesses.

Food safety must also be about preventing people from suffering from malnutrition.

Nowadays, a large amount of ultra-processed food is still considered safe for consumption.

But the fact is that the consumption of ultra-processed food is the main reason behind the alarming and growing levels of obesity in the world.

Ultra-processed food contains little to no nutritional value, with a high content of saturated fats, refined sugar, salt and chemical additives. 

Today, more than 670 million adults are obese. Some projections estimate that the number of obese people will very soon overtake the number of people suffering from hunger in the world, which accounted for 821 million in 2017. This has already happened in Latin America and the Caribbean region.

And while hunger is circumscribed to specific areas, particularly because of factors such as conflict, the impacts of climate change and natural disasters and economic slowdown, obesity is everywhere. We are witnessing the globalization of obesity. For example: eight of the 20 countries in the world with the fastest rising rates of adult obesity are in Africa.

As you know, obesity is associated with many chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and some forms of cancer.

It costs about USD 2 trillion per year in direct healthcare and lost economic productivity. This is equivalent to the impact of smoking or the impact of armed conflicts.

Distinguished guests,

Food safety affects all of us and as, the theme of this celebration says, is everyone’s business. In this regard, this inaugural celebration is an opportunity to discuss food safety challenges and strengthen partnerships that we need to ensure that everyone has access to safe, nutritious and sufficient foods.